SH 
LIVINGSTONE ON THE ZAMBESI 
On the 16th of September, 1859, the great Lake Nyassa was 
discovered. This lake is more than three hundred miles in length, 
and about forty miles in width. It fills a long trench, which is some 
six hundred feet deep below the level of the lake, and is walled in on 
the east by a lofty range of mountains, reaching in the northeast an 
elevation of ten thousand feet. The lake was found to be right in the 
track of a great inland trade. From the country of Katanga and 
Cazembe, from those densely peopled districts lying west of the 
Nyasa, came Arab caravans bringing the products of the country—• 
ivory, malachite, copper ornaments, and too often, even then, gangs 
of slaves—down to the east coast, to the ports of the Portuguese and 
the Arabs, to Iboe, Mozambique and Kilwa. 
One of the results of Livingstone’s many letters home, urging the 
necessity and pointing out the advantages of opening up the Shire 
valley and the shores of Lake Nyassa by missionary labor and the 
founding of a colony, was evidenced early in 1861 by the arrival of 
several members of the Oxford and Cambridge Mission to Africa. 
At their head, to guide and control, was Bishop Mackenzie, a hard¬ 
working and patient man. With them arrived the “Pioneer,” a 
steamer sent by the Government in reply to Livingstone’s request, and 
which was to be utilized now for work on the Shire. The 
“Ma-Robert” had succumbed to her many ailments by making a final 
exit on a sandbank near Sena. Livingstone in the meanwhile had 
written home to his friend, Mr. James Young, asking him to purchase 
another steamer out of the ample funds which “Missionary Travels” 
had raised for him, and consequently good days appeared to be in 
store for those who had been exhausting time and strength in their 
heavily handicapped struggle for the regeneration of Africa. 
Up to this point a good deal had been done in spite of all diffi¬ 
culties. The Kongone arm of the Zambesi and an important entrance 
from the sea had been discovered, navigated, and laid down in charts; 
the navigability of the Zambesi as far as the Kebrabasa Falls was 
demonstrated; the great river Shire had been practically discovered 
and navigated for the first time. Lake Shirwa was another discovery; 
and, to cap the whole, there had been found, lying amid the lofty ridges 
which some four hundred miles inland run parallel with the coast of 
